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Morning Star
It's 2092, and you're on a mission to save Pandora Haze's Venus cloud city colony, but when your ship is set to collide with Venus itself, you must act quickly to survive. Cast * Captain Maxine Myers * VR1-ICA (Veronica) * Prof. Ellie Maxted * Commander Steven Sissay * Peter Lynneberg Simons Plot Follow Me Down Woken from cryo sleep, Captain Myers informs you that you are the last crew member awake. Revival messes with your brain, so not to worry if you have little memory. She tells you the ship is on course to crash through the Venusian atmosphere, so you need to grab a jumpsuit and follow her. Starboard Pods Because you're suffering from post-revival memory burn, Captain Myers reminds you of the mission: you are to investigate a colony of Pandora Haze, owned by Amelia Spens. Their last transmission was seven months ago, cut off by a scream. Amelia has sent you to find out what happened. You meet Commander Sissay, who is helping Prof Ellie Maxted load sick bay equipment into the pod. The escape pods are getting crowded, so you'll join Myers while the ship's AI tries to ensure you don't all die on impact. Outpace the Weather You're in your escape pod with Myers, dropping fast. The colony is a floating cloud city, as that is the only place where Venus is habitable. You're the last pod down, and you crash land just before acid clouds can get to you. But the weather is closing in fast, so you must run across the causeway linking the landing pad to the city if you want to survive. Eastern Pad Captain Myers and you are delayed in getting down the causeway when Prof Maxted reports that her and Peter Simons' pod came down too hard, and is now teetering over the edge of the landing pad. You must move quickly to cut the cords on the parachute, to use as rope to save them. Toward the Dome Prof Maxted manages to get out, but every time Mr. Simons moves, the pod jerks. You throw a piece of cord into the pod, which Simons ties around his waist. Just as the pod falls over the side, Simons dives for the hatch and you help to pull him back in. Now the acid clouds are nearly on top of you. All Hands You all make it into the dome, just in time. Sissay is ahead of you in a control room. The air is breathable, but just after cracking your visors, Sissay informs you that the floor is overloading, triggered by the airlock. You've got to get out of there if you don't want to be toast! This is Bad You all manage to escape from the electrified floor unscathed. You join Sissay, who tells you that not only was the airlock he tried to come through blocked closed as if to keep people out, but he hasn't seen any of the supposed 600 colonists yet. He also witnessed the ship you arrived on burning up, so it will be months until you're rescued. Worse yet, the city is losing air somewhere, which is the only thing keeping the colony from crashing into the surface of Venus. Transcript VR1-ICA: Situation report. Starship Abel 19. 7th of July 2092. Mission: investigate the loss of contact with Venus One colony. Location: Venus orbit, 41 million kilometers out of Earth. Catastrophic system failure detected. Repeat. Catastrophic system failure detected. Emergency crew revival in progress... CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: Specialist Five, on your feet! Get out of the cryotube! Remember where you are Five? Emergency revival does a number on the brain. VR1-ICA: Captain Myers? I cannot correct our course. The ship is on target to crash through the Venusian atmosphere. CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: Thanks computer. We all know that. Five, our mission's not exactly going well. You're the last one up. The crew's prepping for evac. Ships are going down, we don't have long. Grab a jumpsuit Five, then follow me down the corridor. Run! -- CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: Straight forward Five, into the rear crew module. Mind your head on the hatch. COMMANDER STEVEN SISSAY: Nice to see you up Five. How's our favorite specialist? CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: Bit of post-revival memory burn? That's commander Sisay, Five. Ship's pilot. As it's obvious you don't remember the mission yet; I'll fill you in. Venus colony was founded by Amelia Spens' megacorp Pandora Haze in 2090. Supposed to send regular updates on terraforming progress. Stopped transmitting seven months ago with no indication why. The last message we received was the words: "We can't let..." - just that. Cut off with a scream. Pandora sent us out here to find out what the hell happened. COMMANDER STEVEN SISSAY: Crew ????????? skipper. Got them loading supplies into the escape pads. Still, no idea what's wrong with the ship. Massive malfunctions across the board. PETER LYNNEBERG SIMONS: Captain Myers, this is an outrage! This ship cost the company twenty-three billion dollars. It cannot be crashing! COMMANDER STEVEN SISSAY: Good work Five! You remember to look annoyed when Mr. Simons talks. PETER LYNNEBERG SIMONS: ...oh and I am sick of the disrespect from you commander! I am the appointed corporate oversight officer here and you... PROF. ELLIE MAXTED: Captain! I need help from the crew loading this into the evacuation pods. CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: Good lord, professor Maxted! Are you carrying the entire medical bay? PROF. ELLIE MAXTED: We don't know what's happened to that colony! There could be sick people. The port side pods are already full. Some of us are going to have to share. CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: Understood. Look after Mr. Simons Prof. Steve, with Five and me. COMMANDER STEVEN SISSAY: We've got three pods left cap. Best not to crowd them. You take Five, I'll grab some extra sidearms. PROF. ELLIE MAXTED: The colony must have seen us coming, but they haven't signaled us. What do you think's down there? CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: We'll find out soon enough. Feel that? We're losing spin. Gravity compromised. Mag boots everyone. VR1-ICA: Captain? I have tried to ????????? to maximize crew survival, but the drop window is expiring. CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: Okay, people! Starboard pods are down that access way. I expect to see you all safely on the ground. Go. Run! -- CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: That's it 5! Squeeze them through the pod hedge. Strap it to the acceleration couch. Good job! All coming back to you now? Auto launch in three, two, one... Ten years in the UN army Five. Been in a few drops in my time. Trick is to relax. Look out of the porthole. There's an alien sky. The yellow clouds of Venus. We are falling through another planet's atmosphere at 900 kilometers per hour! That'll be the steering thrusters. Brace for parachute deployment. Look, Five! There it is! Hovering over the clouds. Venus One colony. A floating dome with a whole city inside. No sign of exterior damage, the surface of this planet's hell. Conditions there would cook and pop you, but up here in the clouds, temperature and pressure are the most Earth-like in the solar system. And the CO2 atmosphere is so thick the dome keeps itself afloat with a breathable air inside. See that cluster of landing pods, floating next to the dome, connected by the supply drops? That's where we're landing. The specs ahead of us are the other pods. It looks like we're the last down. Brace for impact in three... two... one... ugh. We're down Five. Pop the hatch! Uh-oh. There's a hostile weather front closing fast, acid clouds are regular hazard up here, our EVA suits won't last long in these clouds, and we'll lose visibility once they hit. Helmet comms on! See that causeway in the distance, linking to the colony dome? We'll have to run across the other landing pods to reach it. Fastest you can Five. We need to outpace the weather. Go! -- COMMANDER STEVEN SISSAY: Captain, Steve here. I came down ahead of you. I'm already in the colony dome in that storage area. I spotted you and Five through the window. A couple of dots moving across the landing pads. CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: Acknowledged commander. I know the yellow clouds are impressive Five, but keep your focus on the dome. PROF. ELLIE MAXTED: Captain, captain do you read? Ellie here. Our pod came down hard on the east most pad. Shoe tore loose, we cracked and rolled when we landed, spilled supplies everywhere. We're in trouble. When you lured me out of my ivory tower for this mission I wasn't expecting it to be quite so action-packed. COMMANDER STEVEN SISSAY: I see that pod captain. Looks like it's teetering over the edge of a pad. If they can move without tipping it... CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: Hell... Five we can't leave them. We need something to use as a rope. COMMANDER STEVEN SISSAY: Their parachute tangled in an antenna array Just off your position. Can you see it? CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: Confirmed. Five, there's a cutting torch in your EVA suit. Help me cut some of the cords off that chute Wind speeds out here at 200 kilometers per hour Five. Only reason we're standing is the colony is moving with the wind, but those clouds are fast. The Prof won't have long before they're on top of her. COMMANDER STEVEN SISSAY: That's the skipper Five. Served with us six years. She hates leaving people behind. CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: Alright Five. That will do for the cord. We'll head down the course way on your left toward the eastern pads. Follow me. Run! -- COMMANDER STEVEN SISSAY: Keep going Five, straight across that landing pad. Ellie's pod is ahead of you. It looks like a crushed metal egg. PROF. ELLIE MAXTED: Captain, is that you? CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: There's the prof Five. You managed to climb out of the pod? PROF. ELLIE MAXTED: Just about. I was right next to the hatch. Simon's is still in there and every time he moves the pod jerks. CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: And no one from the colony's been out to assist? Anyone here would have seen us land. Simons? We're gonna use a length of cord into the pod. Grab it and tie it around your waist. Throw it to him Five. PETER LYNNEBERG SIMONS: Oh... this is your fault Myers! You and that pig grunt you call a pilot. I don't care if you're all heroes. Pandora Haze should never have hired you! Oh you're not going to die like this. You are Peter Lynneberg Simons. Level seven. LEVEL SEVEN corporate officer. You deserve better than this! CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: Grab the rope and move toward the hatch Mr. Simons. That's it. Faster! The pad's starting to move! It's going over.. Peter! Crawl ????? the hatch. Five, pull that cord. Heave as hard as you can. COMMANDER STEVEN SISSAY: The pod went over the side. What's your status captain? CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: It's alright. Five get a hold of the cord. Peter is jangling on it. We're pulling them up now. PETER LYNNEBERG SIMONS: You... you saved my life. Of course, I've still got to record a reprimand for this debacle. COMMANDER STEVEN SISSAY: Captain, look behind you. The acid clouds are engulfing the landing pads, like puffs of mustard gas. You've got to get indoors now! CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: Understood Steve. Back across the pads toward the dome, everybody. Not a moment to lose. Run! -- CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: Keep going across the causeway Five. The dome walls just ahead. I can see the city inside. Standard ??? tall, gray buildings. Can you see the entrance? We need to get undercover. PROF. ELLIE MAXTED: Can you believe this place? Look at that sky! The color of parchment. We're really on another world! PETER LYNNEBERG SIMONS: Can we please marvel at it when we're not about to die? Oh, there's the airlock! Five, help me get it open. CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: Steve we're inside the dome, in a cargo loading area. Big warehouse, dim lights. Suit filters read "Safe". Crack your visors everyone to conserve air tanks. Keep helmets on for comms. COMMANDER STEVEN SISSAY: Captain, I'm just north of you. I found a security office. Got computers running. Hold on... I'm detecting a massive electrical surge in your section. The airlock triggered it. The power conduits under the floor are overloading. You need to get out of there. CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: Understood commander. All hands straight down the corridor, but regroup in the security office. Quick as you can. Run! -- PROF. ELLIE MAXTED: There's the security office. Little room full of flashing lights. COMMANDER STEVEN SISSAY: Captain. Good to see you're all okay. CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: Likewise. What happened back there? COMMANDER STEVEN SISSAY: Airlock. Set off an electrical overload that discharged into the floor. That shouldn't have happened. Could have been a malfunction. PROF. ELLIE MAXTED: You don't sound very convinced. COMMANDER STEVEN SISSAY: The airlock I came in through was fused shut, blockated. Like someone was trying to keep people out and... I haven't seen a single colonist since I got here. CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: But there should have been what... 600 people living and working here? And you haven't seen anyone. COMMANDER STEVEN SISSAY: It gets worse skipper. I saw the ship break up on the way down. We're stranded. It'll take months for Earth to get a rescue ship out here. PETER LYNNEBERG SIMONS: Then we need to send a distress call straight away! COMMANDER STEVEN SISSAY: The main computer's down. Minimal systems working, no comms. And if I'm reading these consoles right... The colony's losing air. It must be a breach somewhere. The air recyclers have burned out a few days ago under stress. CAPTAIN MAXINE MYERS: The air is the only thing keeping this place from crashing into the planet's atmosphere. COMMANDER STEVEN SISSAY: There's a lot of air still in this dome, but not months worth. This is bad captain. Really bad. We need to find the colonists and work out what happened to this place, because if we can't fix the problem this whole colony is going to be destroyed within a matter of weeks. With all of us on board. Codex Artefact 'Venus One ID Tag ' An identity tag belonging to one of the Venus One colonists, labeled: Keas Willis, Loading Supervisor. There is no sign of its owner. Category:Mission Category:New Adventures